What: the City's four-year replacement of a roughly 30-year-old financial and operations system with cloud-based software.
Where it stands: human resources and payroll went live in February 2025, work orders and assets in July 2025, the financial system in July 2026 and utility billing on September 1, 2026.
Next: fleet work orders in November 2026; the community development system (permitting, planning, inspections, code enforcement, business licenses) on February 1, 2027, with a public portal for tracking permits.
Details
The project began in 2022 with a consultant and was split into two phases. Phase one covered finance, utility billing, payroll and human resources (contracted December 2023). Phase two covers work orders, assets, fleet and community development (selected August 2024).
Challenges staff named: changing business processes, training, running old and new systems side by side (with overtime), delayed go-live dates and configuration changes.
Staff expect better data on permit and application timelines, which Council tied to the state's permit review time limits. Open records requests are now handled through one online portal.
Whether permits will be visible to the general public in the portal is a policy question for staff and Council. Cybersecurity and backup planning were deferred to a later discussion.
Staff gave a status update on both phases, the challenges and the remaining schedule. Council members praised the staff effort and asked about security, analytics and public access to permit information.